Take2 Healthcare
Case Studies

After Parasite Cleanse

•  Fever Gone
•  No Sensitivity To Light
•  Hormone Problems Resolved
•  Weight Gain Ceased
•  Off All Medications
•  GI Problems 100% Better

The 48-year old patient has already been to 7 doctors, including 3 at OSU clinic, to help her with severe photosensitivity. She currently wears sunglasses even indoors and a double set of sunglasses and visor outside to prevent headaches. Testing from other doctors revealed a severe B1 and B12 deficiency but her eye exams and an MRI were all normal. They speculated the deficiencies were due to a possible genetic malabsorption problem and placed her on B1 and B12 shots which have helped her photosensitivity. The patient also suffers from chronic high fever. She states that her normal body temperature is about 99.8 degrees and that she had more than 20 fevers of 105 with convulsions before she was 5 years old.

The patient follows a very strict and healthy diet cutting back her calories recently and exercising but still continuously gains weight. She currently weighs 226lbs at 5’9” and her BP is 115/75. She eliminated wheat, gluten and potatoes from her diet and rarely eats pasta, dairy, red meat or alcohol. Any time she eats or drinks nutritional shakes she experiences stomach pain, nausea and light-headedness. She had a long history of GI problems:

“I don’t remember the exact symptoms I had, but did have so much daily “morning sickness” (stomach pain) as child (around age 10-11) and missed so much school that I was hospitalized for tests at Children’s Hospital in Columbus. I went through all kinds of tests (barium enema, gynecological, urinary tract catheter, scopes). They could find nothing wrong, except the symptoms disappeared when I drank barium, so the Drs. concluded I had a hyper-acidic stomach which was blamed on me being ‘hypersensitive and emotional’. So I was told not to get upset or show emotions, was put on a bland diet (advised to eat lots of dairy) and told to take Mylanta (or Tums), which I did until I was an adult.”

She was allergic to fresh fruits and vegetables until adulthood and had a congenital defect in her lower mandible which left her unable to chew foods during two rounds of braces (from age 12 until age 23). She had maxillofacial reconstruction in 1983 (age 23). She had bad periods for about 10 years with severe cramping so 15 months ago doctors put her on Seasoniqe. Her light sensitivity and migraines started prior to the birth control. She also takes seasonal allergy medication as needed.

Some preliminary testing was compared to the current tests we ordered. The most significant findings on the latest test are the high Creatine Kinase (CK), low protein and mild liver dysfunction (AST, ALT, GGT) although many other values are not ideal such as cholesterol and thyroid markers.

This was a non-fasting blood test, so the glucose and hemoglobin are fine and the B12 and B1 while high are not harmful. The CK, LDH and CRP are all indicators of muscle breakdown. This could be due to malabsorption or intestinal obstruction with her GI problems. With the low functioning thyroid, her immune system, digestive function and energy will all be lowered and it is very hard to have good cholesterol with a low thyroid. The low Alkaline Phosphatase is another sign of malnutrition and we also see signs of developing anemia with the high Iron and low Ferritin.

At this point in her treatment, we had not determined that parasites were the source of her problems. My thought after viewing the test results was that even with her good diet, the extremity of her GI problems led to absorption issues which created deficiencies in the body. She also has a lot of toxicity, but was not sure of the source. Perhaps these built up from childhood due to chronic health problems and dental work. I recommended supplements targeted at replenishing her stores of essential elements, eliminating toxins and assisting the digestive track with the absorption of nutrients.

For the past few months, the patient has done alternating cycles of 11-days vitamin supplementation for deficiencies followed by 3-days chelation to remove toxic metals. We saw some improvements with the second blood test and many things which did not improve were likely attributed to chelation. The patient states she feels really good by day 4 of the supplement regimen but then crashes after two days of chelation. Her explosive diarrhea got better in the beginning but she recently relapsed and her morning sickness got significantly worse. She says:

“I can actually feel the food slam into my stomach and my stomach lurching into action to digest the food. If I eat solids, this is a rather painful and nauseating process. If I ease my digestive system into action by giving it liquids…then soft foods…by noon I can eat solid foods requiring more work to digest.” 

She has also started gaining weight – as much as 10 lbs per month despite maintaining a very healthy diet. The patient went off her birth control in December and has had gushing, painful periods since. She is considering endometrial ablation for this problem.

Most of us think of our bodies and homes as clean, sanitary places where parasites cannot survive or thrive, but recent studies found that 85% of U.S. adults have at least one form of intestinal or organ parasites living in their bodies.  Tapeworms can be contracted from eating insufficiently cooked meats (especially beef, pork and fish), drinking unfiltered water, eating unwashed fruit/vegetables grown in contaminated soil or irrigated with contaminated water, or insufficiently washing hands after touching things possibly contaminated by stool – diapers, pets, litter boxes, etc.

Tapeworms in humans are true survivalists having both male and female gonads and are capable of producing their own parasitic worm eggs – sometimes more than 1,000,000 eggs a day. Many of these eggs are expelled in the stool, but others hatch with the worms capable of growing up to 30 feet in your intestines and surviving for 30 years!  Their survival is enhanced by the industrial nature of our country. A few decades ago, the eggs and larvae of these parasites would just pass through, but today with the high levels of chemicals and solvents in our environment these parasites can establish themselves in our bodies completing their life cycle with just one host – starting as eggs, then larvae, growing all the way into adult worms.

Typically, patients with parasites suffer from diarrhea, hunger pains, appetite loss, weight loss and anemia. Tape worms attach themselves to the intestinal walls causing irritation and inflammation leading to gas, bloating and malabsorption of vital nutrients, particularly fatty substances. The situation can be magnified when hard-to-digest foods such as beans and raw fruits and vegetables are eaten. By living in the intestines, they also get ‘first choice’ of any nutrients fed to your system. You are their nutritional delicacy. These nasty fiends can also cause liver damage by secreting toxins. The more worms in your body, the more toxic build-up and waste excretions they produce. This increases stress on your liver which is called upon to process and expel the excess toxins from the body.

This patient had non-classic symptoms actually gaining weight even though she was eating less. She likely had so many worms that they were taking all the nutrients provided and leaving her with nothing but water weight and substandard nutrition. By doing comprehensive testing, we were clued in that this might be a possibility with the decreased B-12/anemia, chronic slightly elevated monocytes (an indicator of long-term parasitic invasion), abdominal/GI distress, elevated liver enzymes and severe nutritional deficiencies. Without all this diagnostic testing, the true cause of her problem would likely have been missed yet again.

Research has shown that parasites are particularly susceptible to a variety of herbs which are lethal only to these organisms. Cloves, pumpkin seeds, wormwood and black walnut are all poisonous to the adult worm. Cycles must be maintained however to ensure that any larvae and eggs are killed off as well. This can be a lengthy process, but as you can see, symptoms can begin to ease immediately once the parasite is addressed.

-Dr. Van D. Merkle

Dr. Van D. Merkle is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist and a Doctor of Chiropractic who has practiced in the Dayton, Ohio area for 25 years. A Diplomate on the American Chiropractic Board of Nutrition and a Diplomate on the Chiropractic Board of Internists, he is also a member of The International and American Association of Clinical Nutritionists. Dr. Merkle earned a patent for his innovative diagnostic computerized program which takes into account hundreds of numeric data and their roles, combinations and inter-relationships as related to disease diagnosis. To set up your consultation and get started on the road to better health, please call the Back To Health Center at (937) 433-3241 or email mail@Bk2Health.com.